San Clemente readies for Pico/I-5 work

This is how a wider I-5 and wider Avenida Pico could look in San Clemente. COURTESY ORANGE COUNTY TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY

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Here is how I-5 and the Avenida Pico interchange look today in San Clemente. COURTESY ORANGE COUNTY TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY

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An upgraded Avenida Pico interchange would rebuild the I-5 bridge to make the road wider and the overlying freeway wider, allowing more vehiicle capacity under the bridge and turning onto the freeway. FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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This is a Shell station at Avenida Pico and I-5 that would have to vacate o make room for a proposed widening of the interchange. There are two alternate designs. Both would take out the Shell and a Burger Stop next door. The alternative design would remove both businesses plus a Mobil Station and Carrows Restaurant on the other side of I-5. FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Residents get a close-up view of a computer simulation of proposed expansion of the Avenida Pico freeway interchange in San Clemente. FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Avenida Pico presently has six lanes as it passing underneath I-5 in San Clemente. A widening of the Pico bridge will add three lanes. FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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widening of the I-5 bridge over Avenida Pico in San Clemente will turn the six-lane road into nine lanes to handle more through traffic and more turn capacity. FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

This is how a wider I-5 and wider Avenida Pico could look in San Clemente. COURTESY ORANGE COUNTY TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY

If driving the Avenida Pico corridor in San Clemente sometimes strikes you as less than one of life's little pleasures, just wait until 2014.

Transportation planners are promising a much smoother ride – once a $275 million I-5 widening project is completed in 2017, bringing with it a bigger new Avenida Pico interchange.

Getting there could be a little bit bumpy.

"It's going to be a busy time," said Lori Donchak, an Orange County Transportation Authority board member and San Clemente City Council member. "It's going to probably be a little bit frustrating for our citizens to get around South County."

THE SCENARIO

Caltrans is set to begin work in February to expand the bottlenecked Ortega Highway interchange – an $86.2 million project expected to take about two years and hit San Juan Capistrano with frequent traffic delays and detours.

This fall, Caltrans and the Orange County Transportation Authority will launch a 3Â½-year project to expand capacity along 5.7 miles of I-5 from San Juan Creek Road in San Juan Capistrano to just past Avenida Pico in San Clemente.

It will add a carpool lane in each direction, auxiliary lanes near freeway exits to ease merging and a new interchange that will expand Pico from six to nine lanes under the bridge.

Widening of I-5 from San Juan Creek to Vista Hermosa should start in November and be completed in 2015.

The final segment of the I-5 widening, from Avenida Vista Hermosa to just past Avenida Pico, should start in August 2014.

HOW IT WORKS

In the fall of 2014, the plan is to remove the west half of the Pico bridge. Construction of a longer, wider bridge on the southbound side will take a year. Northbound and southbound traffic will use the other side of I-5, maintaining eight slightly narrowed lanes with just 2-foot shoulders, said Joel Zlotnik, OCTA spokesman.

In the fall of 2015, the east half of the Pico bridge will come down. Bridge construction on the northbound side of I-5 should take a little longer than a year. Northbound and southbound I-5 traffic will use the other side until both sides can be open.

During bridge demolition, I-5 will close at Pico and traffic will exit on the Pico off-ramp and re-enter I-5 via the on-ramp.

The I-5 widening will be done mostly at night to allow traffic to flow during daytime hours. Work on the Pico bridge will be done primarily during the day, but also sometimes at night.

"Pico will be closed for a few separate nights but will be open in the day," Zlotnik said. "Night closure is required for public safety when removing the bridge and to construct portions of Pico."

HOW IT'LL LOOK

The widened I-5 will have four traffic lanes and a carpool lane in each direction, plus new merging lanes near interchanges and sound walls where deemed needed.

Avenida Pico, beneath the widened bridge, will replace today's six lanes and sidewalk with nine lanes, bicycle lanes and a sidewalk.

Eastbound, Pico will have a sidewalk, bike lane, three through lanes and two left-turn lanes onto northbound I-5, Zlotnik said.

Westbound, Pico will have a bike lane, two through lanes and two left-turn lanes onto southbound I-5.

The Pico widening will remove two businesses – a Shell station and the Burger Stop – just west of I-5.

DURING CONSTRUCTION

Donchak said it's important to plan ahead for the Pico bridge work with the Capistrano Unified School District on safe routes to San Clemente High School, which borders the Pico/I-5 interchange. The work also will impact commuters who normally ply Pico to get to and from home or work.

Avenida Vista Hermosa could take on a much bigger role, and that may be at a time when the 248-acre Marblehead Coastal development comes back to life, stalled by economic collapse since 2008. Lehman Brothers, the new developer at Marblehead, is working on start-up plans, Donchak said, and commercial developer Steve Craig is working with the city on final building plans for Phase 1 of Plaza San Clemente outlet center.

LA PATA EXTENSION

Meanwhile, a map presented recently to the OCTA board indicated that a 4.1-mile extension of Avenida La Pata to link San Clemente with Ortega Highway could begin in August.

The $80 million project faces a reported $8 million funding gap, Donchak said, but the county is prepared to build it in three phases, the first two of which are funded with the third being worked on.

Once started, the La Pata project is expected to take about two years.

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